鬼妻吕无病

This is a story from Strange Tales from Make-Do Studio. Mr Sun of Luoyang married the daughter of a magistrate（地方法官） . About twenty days after the wedding, his wife died of illness. Sun was extremely sad. One rainy day, an average-looking girl came to his house and said: "My name is Lu Wubing. I admire you for losing your wife at such a young age. I admire you for your courage at this difficult time. I come to offer help. I am willing to be your maid."

Mr Sun saw that she was simple, generous, diligent, kind and able to read and write, so he accepted her as his concubine（妾，情妇） , rather than as a maid. He later married a woman named Xu a year later, Xu bore him a boy as her own child. Ahjian loved Lu Wubin more than his mother. When Ahjian was three years old, Xu fell seriously ill, and she told Sun, "Wubing loves Ahjian. Please let Wubing be the wife after I die." In tears, Sun promised he would do so.

Nevertheless, he could not follow through on his promise because his family did not give its permission. His family elders dictated that Sun marry a woman named Wang, the daughter of an official. Wang, short-tempered, often beat and scolded Wubing and Ahjian. There the whole family was neither in harmony nor tranquil（安静的） . Sun went far away from home to avoid the shrewish（泼妇一样的） woman.

After a while, Wubing could bear it no longer. She took Ahjian and escaped. She told him about what had happened in the family and his son's whereabouts. While telling the story, she was weeping and crying and then suddenly she fainted, falling on the ground. Sun rushed to help her, only to find her clothes on the ground. She had disappeared. By then, Sun realized that Lu Wubing was the incarnation（化身） of a ghost. In memory of Lu Wubing Sun set up a tombstone with the epitaph（碑文，墓志铭） : "Tomb of Lu Wubing, my ghost wife."